Tonys Empress Blackburn

[Alison H]

You sound like a club stalker Dave !!!! lol

He IS Eddie

[Alison H]

Tonys Empress will always be special to me , as it was my first nighter ! I supported it many times travelling up from down south ( 6 hours in a transit ) I recall brian Jolly having his cowboy moment and many others.

Some words from 1999 or 2000 I think ? regular Djs were Neil Rushton, Pete Coulson , Terry Davis Little Scotty .

Moment I shall always remember was the old dear coming out with her broom telling us " Haven't you go homes to go to " and her looking fresh as daisy at the end of the night

Ok arrives with posse at 11.45, unloads the boxes and passes that little

disco bar on the right, who's waving at me Stoksie ! and Dave Caffrey,

motions later , and enters the stairs.

Do you know I could get on my knees and tenderly kiss every one of those stairs I love this place to bits.

I get such a buzz from it I don't need drugs the place does it for me,

it's carried me to dizzy heights, time and time again.

Not many in, well we did arrive early, but there are more boxes than

normal even Barry James is behind one!

I sat for a while and watched. I get a lot of pleasure from this believe

it or not, just watching people coming in and hugging each other, seeing

their joy at meeting someone that maybe they haven't seen for a while.

Enters Les swans in with his leather trench that he got for Christmas,

gave me an enormous hug, always does, then Brenda ...It was great to see

them, as I missed them the last time.

Back on the floor .....dance ...dance ...dance

Someone played the Four Sights! Love is a hurting game brill and

that Al Gardner "Sweet Baby" aaaaaaaaaaaagh must get this it makes me

melt with pleasure.

We left an hour before it was due to end survived

the night on Banana's coffee , bounty chocolate , and 4 pro plus tabs.....I

have never been so wide awake....the place , the people , the sounds ,carried me.

When we got in the car, it took it's toll , wasn't long

before M was leaning on me I was leaning on Nige ( which was very nice ) ......and we ..sort of slept all the way back to Stafford.

Footnote ....

I didn't sleep ( I was pretending ) ooooh it was a lovely moment that only a nuturing cat would appreciate because I was struck by an arrow that night , still makes me smile thinking about it.

I do recall a girlfriend saying to me ...should i die my ashes are to go between the floorboards in this place.

Lot's of people loved Tonys.

Aww how lovely Carms .... & then it went downhill from there x

P.S. I was one of the Lots x

Edited April 24, 2011 by Alison H

[Guest ScooterNik]

Oooh.... Tonys. I went to one of the first ones - second or third I think - back in the late 80s. It wasn't heaving that night but it was good enough to drag me back again soon after.

I remember sliding down the stairs one night when my bloody legs gave up on me due to a combination of a lot of dancing and an old rugby related injusy. Some bloke from the midlands gave me a lift to the railway station with my leg stretched out across the rear seat as I couldn't bend my knee.

I can't remember the reason why I stopped going in the end, it was only a few miles from me and easy to get to and from.

Cracking nights though.

[Stuart Bower]

under which promoter?

First time I went there was when Guy was running it, think the first one was beginning of 1988 or was it '87?

1987 i think Chalk..

Not by any means the first allnighter I ever attended (that was over twelve years earlier) but Tony's was definitely one of my favourites..Great memories..

Edited May 18, 2011 by Stuart Bower

[Biggordy]

I think I went to the last few Tony's with Dave Olley from the North East. It was there that I first met many people from the old KTF e-mail list such as Carms, Nige, Maria O, Chalky, Brian J, Matt Jahans (whatever happened to Matt?), Kit The Jock(where is he too?), Alex from Notts and many more (including a couple of allegedly dodgy characters whose names don't get mentioned these days!).

Those were the days when I had regular lifts and my health was good enough for me to go out most weekends.

Gordy

[Hooker1951]

Only just picked up on this thread, further information on Tony,s Guy Hennigan had run his Soultown promotions there until 1990  I took over with Mark Robinson as promoter had our first one in October 1991 as Bradford only had a couple of months left at the time all though it was resurrected sporadically over the next 2 years I ran it under MyK promotions obviously MyK meaning Mick , Mark left within 2 years and I brought Scotty on board with me in 1995 we ran it monthly for over 150 all nighters until 2003 when the ballroom was deemed unsafe by health n safety , in the early 1990,s it bridged a gap when the all nighter scene was seemed to be getting scarcer except for the 100 club and the  Great Keele nighters every 4 months or so, We had an open policy for the music played there and the variety of Dj,s who played for me there made that a reality,, My idea there was to keep it raw , dark like a throwback to the late 1960,s soul clubs and to give Soulies old and new a fresh experience every time they came, I’m sure a lot of happy memories were made there.

Cheers Mick Lyons